North Forty Two & Co. Acquires New Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

North Forty Two & Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 4,987 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,000. Microsoft makes up about 2.4% of North Forty Two & Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest holding.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. IFS Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 53.8% during the 4th quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Avondale Wealth Management increased its stake in Microsoft by 144.4% in the 4th quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 110 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the period. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $62,000. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $141,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.0%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $450.18 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.35 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $402.37 and its 200 day moving average is $413.85.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.94 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Microsoft from $472.00 to $482.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James lifted their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $513.13.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total transaction of $9,756,055.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 134,888 shares in the company, valued at $61,208,127.76. The trade was a 13.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total value of $2,599,020.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 471,036 shares in the company, valued at $204,038,664.12. This represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 131,743 shares of company stock worth $58,375,673 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.